Your fellow divers will not care who certified you. We all just want to dive. The dive shops really don't care either...they just want to see your proof of certification. My certification is from PADI, and I have come to learn that it is a well-recognized brand worldwide, so it's like your passport. You can use it anywhere in the world. As far as the quality of my training, it was poor. That's not PADI's fault, but the instructor. PADI provides them the coursework and it's up to the instructor to do his job well. What IS PADI's fault is not providing a more comprehensive course with longer instruction time and requiring, say, 25 dives to achieve OW. And I think the Nitrox training should be included in the OW course. PADI's core instruction model is really flawed.
Retrospectively, to think that I could competently perform the tasks of SCUBA after just 5 dives and some classroom time was insane. I never felt pressured to take classes, but they did offer to teach me the OW and AOW in a combo-style class, which I declined. It was several years between getting my OW & AOW, and by the time I took the AOW, I already had comfort in the AOW skills doing regular, diving so the course was easy. And, as a side note, my AOW was done in Hawaii, and given the high cost of diving in Hawaii, the cost of the AOW course was only about $50 more than if I had paid for those dives. I did all the book work at home, then did the classroom review and diving in Hawaii. It worked out great!
In summary, my opinion is that all you really need to pay for in courses would be OW, AOW, & Nitrox, since these are the most basic and necessary skills to be on your way to becoming an experienced recreational diver. I have learned so much from other, more experienced divers over the years, so I would rather spend the money I would have paid for the "fluff" specialties on actual diving. Just my opinion.
It may seem that way. But the requirements are defined by the WRSTC, the agencies just define the method of teaching of all these ISO standards.How would I know? PADI doesn't publish the standards. One of the reasons that I went to TDI and NSS-CDS for tech instead of PADI.
Yes, the WRSTC is formed by representatives of nearly all agencies (except e.g. CMAS), but a single member will not deviate from the standards in their teaching of these requirements.
So bashing any WRSTC member is essentially bashing all of them. Shortsighted & useless.